22 testimonies and reports from attorneys, prisoners’ families, and released prisoners point to the dangerous practice of firing rubber- or plastic-like bullets at close range inside prison wings. Firing in confined, crowded spaces increases the danger posed by these bullets, particularly due to fragments and ricochets. Documented cases reveal severe injuries, including fractures and heavy bleeding, with some prisoners suffering irreversible harm. Together with the @stoptorture_il , we sent an urgent letter to the Commissioner of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) and the Attorney General, demanding an immediate end to these firing practices inside prison cells and corridors. Firing at prisoners at close range inside confined cells is not only a severe act of violence but also reflects a dangerous structural shift in how prison officers perceive their role: no longer as incarceration staff, but as an arm of a militarized and coercive system. For some time, the IPS has been recruiting prison officers under the designation “incarceration combatants,” terminology that further militarizes the prison system and legitimizes the portrayal of prisoners as enemies on a battlefield. This shift treats prisoners’ lives as expendable, lowers the threshold for the use of force, and makes it easier to justify violence and resort to firearms. All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of the state’s declared war on Palestinian prisoners. In light of the grave abuses committed against prisoners, these practices must not only cease immediately but also be subject to thorough, effective investigations into those responsible at the operational level, as well as those who enabled, permitted, endorsed, and normalized turning prison cells into firing ranges. apnews.com/article/palestini…

Release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all medical providers from Gaza held arbitrarily in Israeli detention While experts and health professionals around the world continue to call for the release of the 14 Palestinian doctors and other healthcare workers from Gaza who have been held arbitrarily by Israeli authorities, some since the early onset of the genocide in Gaza, the state of Israel continues to subject these medical professionals to grave injustices by prolonging their detention in violation of international law. On 10 July 2026, the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) held an emergency panel renewing the call for the immediate release of Dr. Abu Safiya and 13 other Palestinian physicians, and for an end to their torture in Israeli prisons. Moderated by Dr. Ruth Gibson and Dr. Keith Martin, the panel featured Naji Abbas (PHRI), Prof. Tom Dannenbaum, Prof. Naftali Kaminski, and Dr. Thaer Ahmed. Speakers called for the physicians’ release, urgent medical care, an independent international investigation, and public action from medical associations. PHRI continues to stress that freeing Gaza’s doctors and healthcare workers is essential to rebuilding Gaza’s healthcare system and joins experts and health professionals worldwide in calling for their immediate release. Watch the panel here: piped.video/watch?v=JreiTmbH…

We stand in pain and solidarity with Dr. Munir al-Bursh and his family during this difficult time, following an Israeli strike that killed his eldest son, Basir al-Bursh, on Saturday. - An Israeli drone reportedly struck Basir as he left his family’s tent in the Al-Zahra neighborhood, west of Jabalia refugee camp. Medics and family members said the strike killed Basir and seriously wounded another. Like most of the population, Dr. al-Bursh’s family has been forcibly displaced time and again, living in makeshift shelters, throughout Israel’s genocidal campaign, which destroyed their home. In December 2023, Israeli forces killed Dr. al-Bursh’s 13-year-old daughter, Jinan, and wounded him. - Basir’s killing is a stark reminder that the Israeli military has not ceased its attacks across Gaza, continuing to to kill and take the lives of Palestinian women, men, and children. According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, since October 11, 2025, Israeli forces killed 1,390 Palestinians and injured 4,801 others. - Alongside dedicated doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers, Dr. Munir al-Bursh, Director-General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, has been at the forefront of efforts to sustain Gaza’s healthcare system under conditions of immense destruction and deprivation. We have been in contact with Dr. al-Bursh for years, including until October 2023 coordinating visits by PHRI healthcare worker delegations to meet their colleagues in Gaza. Through his regular reports, Dr. al-Bursh provides vital, up-to-date information on the state of Gaza’s healthcare system: the ongoing shortages of medicines and medical supplies, and the thousands of patients waiting for urgent care that remains unavailable in Gaza. Israel’s restrictions on essential supplies and lack of access to the resources needed for reconstruction continue to prevent the genuine rehabilitation of Gaza’s healthcare system. - We stand with Dr. al-Bursh during this difficult time, and we continue to stand with Palestinian healthcare workers in Gaza and support their efforts to restore and rebuild an integrated, fully functioning Palestinian healthcare system. - Use of the photo is made in accordance with Section 27A of the Copyright Law.

After six months of repeated appeals to the Israel Prison Service (IPS), R., a prisoner with a hearing disability whose case we have been handling, finally received batteries for his hearing aid two weeks ago. His family was informed and, for a moment, felt relieved. But that relief was short-lived. The batteries last less than two weeks, and there is no assurance that they will be replaced when they run out — particularly given the IPS’s routine restrictions on Palestinian prisoners’ ability to access medical equipment and other essential supplies. With family visits banned and lawyer visits costly and difficult to arrange, R.’s family will once again be left in the dark, not knowing whether he will continue to hear or once again be cut off from the world around him. Hearing is particularly critical for incarcerated people. During roll call, for example, prisoners are forced to kneel with their heads bowed toward the floor. Looking up can expose them to beatings by prison guards. In this environment, hearing becomes a tool for survival, allowing prisoners to remain aware of what is happening around them. Over the past two years, we have handled several cases in which prisoners with hearing impairments were ordered to stand but, unable to hear the command, remained in place. R.’s case is not exceptional. PHRI’s Prisoners Department has documented numerous cases of detainees entering prison without the basic medical equipment and supplies on which they depend. These have included splints for people with nerve damage; eyeglasses needed by hundreds of prisoners; a prosthetic eye for a journalist whose eye had been removed; and protective sunglasses for an elderly blind prisoner to prevent dust from entering his eyes. The IPS largely ignores our appeals, as well as those submitted by Palestinian prisoners’ lawyers, to allow the entry of basic supplies such as eyeglasses. When we do obtain a response, it usually amounts to a statement that the prisoner has undergone an eye examination. Yet this offers little reassurance given the bureaucratic catch-22 that follows: under the IPS’s “procedures for procuring medical devices,” payment must be made before the glasses can be provided — yet at present, there is no way to make such a payment. Every step toward the goal becomes part of a frustrating Sisyphean ordeal that leads only to continued abuse. We push the boulder of bureaucracy up the hill, only to watch it roll back down to the same absurd starting point: a prisoner left with broken glasses on his face.

UPDATE 🚨 Dr. Abu Safiya: “Prison Guards Continue to Beat Me and Threaten Me to Keep Silent” Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip, who has been held by Israel without charge or trial since December 2024, reported in recent testimony that prison guards continue to abuse him. Abu Safiya told his attorney, who visited him on Sunday (August 30), that prison guards continue to assault him, punching and kicking him and beating him with batons across his body, including sensitive areas. He also reported being deliberately deprived of sleep through persistent noise and loudspeakers used throughout the night. According to Abu Safiya, he was assaulted following his previous attorney visit and warned not to speak about the conditions of his detention. His testimony comes as we pursue legal proceedings demanding that an independent physician to be permitted to examine him. The initial request was submitted to the Israel Prison Service on July 7 but has yet to be approved. At the same time, our central demand remains unchanged: the release of the 14 physicians from Gaza, including Dr. Abu Safiya, so that they can reunite with their families and resume their medical duties.

My first month as executive director of Physicians for Human Rights Israel—and the preceding year and a half as Deputy Director of Programs—taught me about the broken and the whole, the fracture and the healing, in our work. We operate in a state whose military and civil arms are invested in oppressing the Palestinian people, while much of Jewish society actively participates, condones it, or looks away. Against this backdrop lies a futile effort to carve out a 'democratic' sphere—where rights and equality can supposedly be debated—distinct from a sphere ruled by the logic of destruction and genocide. Fragmentation runs deep. It is evident in the shattering of Palestinian space and the fracturing of their healthcare system, devastating a population that needs and is entitled to its medical institutions. It also manifests in the proliferation of legal "statuses" imposed on Palestinians, enabling the incarceration of thousands, including healthcare workers, without charge, while normalizing torture camps. Fractures are widening within Israel proper as well. The state’s retreat from providing health insurance to all children without status builds a wall between kids in the very same preschool—some granted coverage and others stripped of that basic right based solely on their parents' origin. And under the same healthcare system, residents of neighboring towns receive starkly unequal medical care, both in quantity and quality, driven by structural disparities related to nationality and socioeconomic status. The broken is in spatial fragmentation and in divide-and-conquer strategies that isolate issues and communities from one another. And PHRI’s mission is to restore the whole. It begins with recognizing that what happens anywhere in this space impacts the space as a whole. It means bridging the gap between a child with status and one without, and resisting the endless splintering of the Palestinian health system. Ultimately, our mission lies in insisting on a unified, continuous, and connected existence that fosters true solidarity and mutual responsibility. I could not have wished for a finer community to lead alongside—from our staff and board, to volunteers from across the health sector and beyond, to supporters who make our work possible. Together, we hold the complete picture, of the broken and the whole. Striving for wholeness also means extending grace to one another across the PHRI community. Such grace allows us to navigate the devastating chasm between today's brokenness and a glimmer of wholeness and hold fast to its possibility—a reality in which supremacy is dismantled, justice is served, full individual and collective equality is practiced, and historical injustice is righted.